Desura Game Distribution Service Releases On Linux 77
An anonymous reader writes "Desura is a digital distribution platform for video games, focusing on releases from indie developers and mods rather than AAA titles. After a two-month beta period, Desura has launched a Linux client, which supports the installation and patching of games on any Linux distribution. With this release, Desura is the first client to work on both Windows and Linux systems, enabling games to be installed with a click. They're currently in discussions to release the code under the GPL."
Meh.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Looks like all the game titles are Humble Bundle games. Don't get me wrong, I love the HB games and I think it's great that Linux is getting some gaming love but when I can just download, tar xvfz && ./runme , I don't see the point of this. Are other titles available? Does this mean EA is going to start doing Linux ports through this?
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I think the idea is great. However, exactly that: the *idea*. I'd like to see this become more successful for sure!
It seems like a majority of games listed cannot be installed directly through this, steam style.
Is it me or is there not an easy way to split off "which games can be installed directly" vs "which games you're just adding a link" from their website?
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Which games are these? All the games I've tried have installed and played directly from Desura.
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when I looked, I looked for EA games and a few others - they were the top of the list. It said "we can add a shortcut" but not "install".
examples: http://www.desura.com/company/electronic-arts/games [desura.com]
they all say "shortcut"...so, can't install straight through desura on linux, right?
Re:Meh.... (Score:4, Informative)
I bought and installed Dungeons of Dredmor (which is a fun game, if you like that sort of thing), and it both installs and run through Desura.
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I like Dredmor a lot personally, and already have a copy on steam.
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These games aren't for sale through Desura. You can buy them elsewhere and install them and add a shortcut inside Desura so all your games are in one place - that's the option it's offering you there.
Games that you can buy through Desura are managed and installed for you, just like they would be with Steam.
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The idea is create something like steam. You can download the game from the developer's website, but having a single interface where you can download, buy, apply mods, manage friends, etc is the point of this. I don't really like the idea of this since it places too much power in a single company (see steam), but there is a demand for it and desura seems a good software that has love for linux. It is already rather big and it looks like it can drive some major games to linux with some more time, so I suppor
Re:Meh.... (Score:5, Insightful)
and it looks like it can drive some major games to linux with some more time
Hahaha what? Desura will have almost no impact of bringing major games. If there was a market for that Stream for Linux would have already berm released rather than Michael of Phoronix perpetually claiming it's just around the current.
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If Steam is ever released for linux it will probably kill desura (or leave it with only indie games forever), but if there is no steam for linux and major game developers have some interest in porting games to linux, an established platform like desura that has an established userbase and such can be the extra incentive they need.
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Uhhh, no. Big name game companies aren't going to go through some no-name to distribute their games. They'd develop their own platform, port their platform (EA) or preassure Valve to port Steam. The big game companies WILL NOT use Desura. That is ludicrous fantasy.
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So a company that didn't run a digital game distribution platform and went out of business? Wow what a stunning comeback! They were a third party licensor that paid to port games. How is that equivalent to what steam or desura do?
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Loki Games paid to port those games and Loki was not a digital distribution service. So again, what's your point since they are nothing like what Steam and Desura are?
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Then you'll have to live with most big game companies passing up your platform.
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Why? Companies will use whatever is cheapest and easiest. All services are no-name at the beginning.
If a big game company (Activision, say) wanted to release a game for Linux, they'd set about figuring out what's the easiest way of doing it- standalone, through an existing service, or in partnership with someone like Steam. They'll pick whatever comes out top. No reason why a "no-name" startup like Desura won't be picked, if the price and facilities offered are right.
Hell, most big game companies would feel
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It all depends on the price. As a customer I certainly wouldn't mind running both if it meant I got cheaper games.
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Yes. If you really want a GUI you can always uncompress and doubleclick in one instead. If it's a package then just clicking it will bring up the software manager, what else is needed?
I do not need my stuff to be managed by some third party. I want to deal with the developer only, and nobody else.
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You should pay more attention when reading.
What micromanagement? You double click the .deb or .rpm, it asks if you want to install it, and that's it.
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You're confusing two separate things.
1. A .tar.gz can be uncompressed, and the installer executed from a GUI. Just because most people use the command line for it, doesn't mean you can't untar something from the GUI of your choice.
2. A .deb or a .rpm can be installed by just clicking on it, without needing anything extra. No special software is needed
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Are other titles available?
Yes there are. Oil Rush, for example. You can browse the Linux only games by going to the game browsing page [desura.com] and clicking the Tux in the upper right hand corner. The Humble Indie Bundle was popular and came with Desura keys, so a lot of people can test using Desura without having to buy a game straight out from them.
Are other titles available? Does this mean EA is going to start doing Linux ports through this?
I *highly* doubt EA will ever start doing Linux ports and if they did, they'd find a way to bring Origin to Linux to do it. But Desura acts as a game distribute service that goes across Wind
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I don't see the point of this
Package management is an excellent thing, but apt-get doesn't work so well with non-free (as in money) software
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Package management is an excellent thing, but apt-get doesn't work so well with non-free (as in money) software
Somehow I don't see this being more difficult than having a HTTP(S) user:pass for your paid "steam-like" repository. Generate the package list on the fly - the packages are the same, just which appear to be available. Use file permissions to make sure nobody wget anything they shouldn't and it'll be almost like steam. Throw in your standard webshop interface, on purchase you add the package to your user set and file permissions on the server, call apt-get update, apt-get install $game. Patches come via apt-
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The only problems with an apt-get framework is that it means you have to add repos for any pool of the downloadables and there is NO management for who gets to download the title. Do keep in mind that the titles are not all FOSS or free as in beer, for that matter. Right now the package managers for the distributions really, really don't have the framework in place for this sort of thing. If it did, I'd be all for it and I'd be helping it grow that way- and this only gets into distributions that do packa
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The only problems with an apt-get framework is that it means you have to add repos for any pool of the downloadables and there is NO management for who gets to download the title.
Well, that was what I was saying you could build.
Do keep in mind that the titles are not all FOSS or free as in beer, for that matter.
What part of "after purchase" didn't you read?
Right now the package managers for the distributions really, really don't have the framework in place for this sort of thing.
That I agree, but the package managers wouldn't have to do anything special. Nor would the packagers.
If it did, I'd be all for it and I'd be helping it grow that way- and this only gets into distributions that do packaging like this. What about Gentoo, etc. that don't have a packaging system, per se, in the same sense as Debian and Red Hat have developed?
If you want to download a binary game, it has to work on some binary interface. I don't see how it can work any other way.
Maybe I'll try explaining it to you slooooowly:
1. You set up a website foo.com. There you have a store to purchase games.
2. Users register at foo.com like user "svartalf" with some password.
3. U
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I like the idea, and I agree: there's no need to come up with something new and strange when Linux already has perfectly good package management.
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Package management is an excellent thing, but apt-get doesn't work so well with non-free (as in money) software
It can. You can easily have custom (ie locked to one user) package lists with secured downloads and pump all that through Deb. It's all HTTP after all; anything you can do on a website you could do with the current apt stack.
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It's easy to talk about some of the technicals and none of the logistics or the total technicals. You're oversimplifying this as are all the others talking about doing this thing.
Rather than arguing the subject with you all...I challenge you to IMPLEMENT the thing you're talking to in a manner that it can be secured well enough to make the indie studios and the big labels happy. Why am I challenging you all? Because, like I am doing now, someone did the same thing and I put my money where my mouth was an
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I'm not oversimplifying anything. This is simple!
Seriously.
1. Give the user a unique repo URL (telling them to add it is the hardest thing here)
2. When their apt hits it for packages.gz, the system looks at their unique identifier and see's which packages they're allowed and sends them the results
3. When they try to download something, the system checks again to see if they're allowed it. If they are, it sends it the package.
What is hard about that? A monkey with two minutes of PHP e
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Package management is an excellent thing, but apt-get doesn't work so well with non-free (as in money) software
Maybe not, but dpkg works fine.
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I think you just demonstrated (one of) the point(s);
Most people aren't amused with having to first find the download, then download it, unpack it, install it, etc. when there's a shinier option that has already found what you (presumably) want for you and lets you install it with a minimum number of polished UI
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Looks like all the game titles are Humble Bundle games. Are other titles available?
The Penumbras, the Amnesias, and Dungeons of Dredmor.
Re:Meh.... Meh, indeed... (Score:3)
Well, considering that none of them have had a tool quite like this (the Steam version that Valve has internally not withstanding...) available, combined with Desura being at least initially Indie-oriented, it's going to lead to the effect you're commenting to there. There's not exactly going to be any EA, Valve (duh!), Square|Enix, etc. titles on there yet. As for them wanting to do them, that might come with time with a service or two like this available to handle things. I know it's going to be a subj
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One more link to a complete ecosystem. Who cares what the Windows fanbois think or say.
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Why would any company be doing any serious development for Linux since no one will pay for anything?
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Awesome software (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Awesome software (Score:5, Informative)
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RPM (Fedora) friendly too. I bought Project Zomboid, which later put it on Desura. It installed no problem, and also ran no problem, which I wasn't expecting.
Ha! Project Zomboid is a great freaking game. It's funny how an 8-bit game can make you cringe.
PROTIP: Package management systems! (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh boy... the Windows-think people are at it again.
Next thing we know, they'll "invent" the concept of "everything is a file".
Or brag about their awesome new Linux versions of AutoIt and WinBatch called "ash" and "wbash".
They just invented NIH all over again... :P
Awesome - and some good games! (Score:1)
I've been on the Beta as well. It works great, and I found a game that I love. I've become addicted to the game Oil Rush, which I think is still in beta too, but you can buy it on Desura, or directly from the developers, is a really fun game with excellent graphics. It's a tower defense game, I kind of view it as an updated Red Alert, set on the sea, with really fancy graphics and a really fun game play. I'm going to have some friends over this weekend and we're going to try to LAN it. I think it will be a
Ubuntu Software Center? (Score:2)
I just bought Braid in Ubuntu's Software Center (Appstore). How is this better?
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Because Desura is made to be accessible for any Linux distro, and not just Ubuntu.
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Which is why I'm tickled they finished the thing. I'm going to be in talks w/them to see what the story is on behalf of the Indies I represent.
Re:Ubuntu Software Center? (Score:5, Informative)
WTF!? ANONYMOUS READER!? (Score:3, Interesting)
I have submitted this news item on firehose at least twice now and it got rejected each time! And now some anonymous dude pitches up and gets it in first time!
*rants and mumbles*
Seriously, Editors. It's either newsworthy or it isn't.
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I have to ask (Score:2)
Can they get it working (Score:2)
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I suspect so. I've had surprisingly few issues with the scheme I'm using for producing my indie games- I target anything from Debian Sarge forward (some 10+ distributions tested and used by customers so far...) with how I build and package with MojoSetup. Right now, most of the titles are straight ports so they can't be global installs (per user acct installs...but since the games are small and without any DRM, etc...) but I'm going to do a follow on release of all of them to hopefully fix that issue. De
wait, this sounds amazing?! (Score:1)
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Heh... It's the Indie community coming up with it's own answers for things, similar to what Valve came up with for Steam so that it can be supported on ALL primary desktop OSes, much like the thinking that the Humble Bundle people have with things. I'm hopeful that I can get to something that will let me start scooping up not just Indie port work on things... It's a piece part of the puzzle that's been kind of missing (Looking at Valve for not trying to get their answer out...and grumbling...) for a bit
How many? (Score:1)
How many Linux users will actually pay for any of this? My guess is hardly any. It will be interesting to come back to Desura in a year and see how their doing.
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you are kidding right? Have a look at the stats for the humble bundle releases some time. Linux users are more than willing to hand over the cash for pew pew's.